How-To: Tether Your BlackBerry to Your Mac

One of the big, new features of the iPhone is its ability to tether. BlackBerrys have had this ability for a while, so below I have outlined how to tether your BlackBerry with your Mac to use your Internet connection to browse the web with your computer.

Advertisement

Some Things to Note

This tutorial is for Leopard.

I have successfully tested this with a BlackBerry Bold and a BlackBerry Curve 8900 using the 8800 modem drivers, but it should also work with the BlackBerry 8100, 8700 and 8800.

Some service providers have a special tethering plan that you may need to add to your cell phone. (It will work without the tethering packing, but you might get slammed with overage charges if they catch you.)

Although the information is pretty old, it worked perfectly for me. I am in Hong Kong, and I have a Bold 2 with Peoples (aka China Mobile HK). APN is peoples.net, and user/pwd is your phone number/the pwd you set up on Peoples/Blackberry web site account. Just thought I’d mention it so that if other BB users in HK end up on this page. Thanks!

One of the big, new features of the iPhone is its noesis to constraint. BlackBerrys mortal had this ability for a spell, so below I hump distinct how to constraint your BlackBerry with your Mac to use your Cyberspace transfer to range

I have used Tetherberry (now Tether.com) to no avail. After hours and hours of trying different settings, I was able to get occasional, super-slow connection speeds on a road trip last September.

This time around, in preparation for another trip, I tried it out again using their updated software. Problem is, it does not work if your Blackberry Desktop Manager is installed. I use that regularly, so that was a deal killer.

This setup did work for me, although I did pay for authorized Blackberry tethering service for the month. I have ATT, and they only support their tethering with Windows, and I have Mac OS X (Snow Leopard). So I re-researched tethering via Bluetooth without any software add-ons and found this article (again).

This time I was able to get it to work pretty easily. I don’t know if having the authorized ATT tethering plan added this month made it work or not. I’ll cancel the service next month and try it to find out.

There’s a much simpler way to do this, at least it works for me on Verizon with a curve 8530 and Snow Leopard (10.6.2). It will cost you $30 “tethering charge” though (even though data is data, &%*#* those bandits!).

Hook up your blackberry via USB, the go to System Preferences -> Network. It will tell you a new network device has been detected. Configure it by setting (on Verizon, other carriers will be different) telephone number to “#777”, account name to “vzw3g”, and password to “vzw”. Don’t use the quotes — but you knew that, right? :)

I have been tethering my BB for at least a year now and it works pretty well, but has anyone else had the problem of (If you drop your connection, you cannot disconnect the bluetooth from the disconnect menu and if you do get it to disconnect, you cannot connect again because of a modem error?)
I get this allot because I tether at work almost the whole day, when this happens, I have to re boot my MacBook Pro and do a QuickPull on the BB and then it works great again for hours. It’s like it gets disconnected but the Mac thinks it still is and will not let me disconnect.

at&t says there is a $30 tethering charge per month… I was able to use my bb 9700 as a modem for my mbp last night (using the above directions) and am wondering, since I was able to connect, will at&t automatically charge me the $30/month? or is it possible that I can use my bb as a modem for my mbp and not pay that monthly service charge? I’ve read some comments here and elsewhere how people connect for “free”… does anyone know the answer to this? thank you very much! :)

Hi i have been trying to connect my BB 8900 to my MacBook Pro but I am from Ecuador and I live there and my vendor is Movistar. I searched in google the information about movistarÂ´s internet and i found it, but i followed all the steps in this tutorial and at the end when I connect the BB to the computer the computer tells me that it is connected and there is data sending but not receiving and I dont have internet, the pages dont load and it doesnt connect.
Can anybody help me, maybe the vendors info isnt correct or something like that.
The web page is http://www.modmymoto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51943
I dont know what to do, and i tried this software lauch2net but it doesnt support my phone.
Help me please
When you know something please let me know
Thanks!!

Install the script(s) in the directory /Library/Modem Scripts. If you have a Bold (like I do), you only need download the 3G script.

I believe Research In Motion will only show up as a Vendor in the Advanced… dialog if you’ve installed BB Desktop Manager. If you’re using another syncing solution, you may be able to select “Other” and see your downloaded script(s) in the Model field. That’s what worked for me.

I got the same problem, but I fixed the problem I had with Research in Motion not showing up. You just download the scripts and put the folder in hardrive/library/modem scripts. However, even once this problem was resolved, it still says that there was a ppp error when I try to connect to the internet. Everything else works! what is the problem?

I have a BB 8330 with Sprint and a MacBook Pro. Sprint has no address on the list above. Yesterday I purchased a MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot card. It is wireless and lets you connect your laptop (and 5 others) to the 3G Mobile Broadband at home or while you are on the road. It was $99 with rebate and $50 a month (normally $60 unless you are a Sprint customer) and you get to transfer 5GB a month before they start charging you.

I used it last night in my favorite restaurant where there is no WiFi available and I had a friend come over with his laptop and we both were online simultaneously. It was real fast when I was alone on it and it did slow down a bit when my friend joined in. People were coming over and asking us to check things on Facebook etc. I wanted to see how much data I used but it hasn’t updated yet on sprint.com but you can check it after a day or so.

All in all, I am very pleased with it and I have a 30 day free trial too!

No offense intended, but a revision to the title of this blog entry is in order, IMO. I have a BB. A Storm. On the Verizon network. While helpful to some, I could have avoided a trip to this entry if you’d added a “AT&T” to the title.